Provisional Parliament
Topic: Making of the Constitution: Constituent Assembly, Sources and Salient Features · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Provisional Parliament was the Constituent Assembly working as India's law-making body after the Constitution started on 26 January 1950. It was a single house. Original Art. 379 set it up, and original Art. 380 provided a provisional President. It filled the gap until the first elected Parliament met in 1952. The 7th Amendment (1956) later removed both articles because they had served their purpose.
Example
The Provisional Parliament passed the First Amendment in 1951, before any general election had been held. This shows that the same body that wrote the Constitution also made the first change to it.
Don't confuse with
- Dominion legislature: from November 1947 to January 1950, before the Constitution began, the Assembly also sat as the law-making body of the Dominion. G.V. Mavalankar presided over it. The Provisional Parliament is the name for the period after 26 January 1950.
- First elected Parliament (1952): the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha formed after the 1951–52 general election. The Provisional Parliament was not chosen by the people's direct vote.